


Flower Shop

by kksunflowerbaby



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson Fluff, BAMF Annabeth Chase, F/M, Florist!Annabeth, Fluff, Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase - Freeform, Percy is a Dork, Romance, alternative universe, beginning relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 18:39:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14939711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kksunflowerbaby/pseuds/kksunflowerbaby
Summary: Annabeth runs a flower shop. Percy comes in with the most insulting request she has ever seen.Prompt and flowers were found on Pinterest!Prompt: Person A owns a flower shop and person B comes storming in one day, slaps 20 bucks on the counter and says “How do I passive-aggressively say fuck you in flower?”





	Flower Shop

It has been a relatively quiet morning in Annabeth’s flower shop. In the three years it’s been since she bought it from her family friend, Chiron, it has usually been visited by romantics trying to woo their sweethearts and people celebrating different events and anniversaries within their lives.

Through this routine, Annabeth has known which flowers to stock at which times of the year. For June and July, when graduations happen, she makes sure to keep a special corner of the flower shop filled with birds of paradise (meaning magnificence), heather lavender (admiration), gladiolus (strength of character/honor), sprigs of basil (good wishes), and daisies (hope).

Annabeth’s special talent with her flower shop was knowing what every flower meant and keeping track of the events of the year so that her customers could show their emotions through flowers and their beauty. Every flower had a message, and she could make the most beautiful arrangement with the most heartfelt message associated with it. 

That’s why, on a delightful Tuesday morning, just past eleven am, when an angry customer storms into the flower shop, Annabeth is so surprised she almost drops her orchids in her hands. She maintains a grip on the flower pot and turns to see who had slammed open the door so hard.

It’s a guy, about Annabeth’s age, with dark hair and sea-green eyes. He’s wearing an orange shirt, with faded letters proclaiming something about a camp. His blue jeans have a tiny hole near the ankle, and Annabeth can’t help but wonder how a hole came to be there. She is forced to look away from his legs when he comes up to her. He’s quite a few inches taller, so he is staring down at her when he speaks.

“I have twenty dollars. How do I passive-aggressively say ‘fuck you’ in flower?”

Well, that’s not how Annabeth thought her morning would start.

“I’m sorry,” he says quickly, seeing her reaction. “Listen, my stepdad is in the hospital for a totally dumb reason and my mom wants me to bring him flowers but he’s a total asshole and I hate him and I want to find a way to say it without actually saying it.”

“Actually,” she says, surprising the man and herself by sharing. “I know what it’s like to have a bit of a dick for a parent. I have just the thing for you.”

She motions with her finger for the man to follow her. He does so, and Annabeth begins gathering flowers from around her shop. While Annabeth had hundreds of flowers that had significant meaning, she also kept stock of flowers that were pretty, but had a bit of a negative meaning.

In this case, she is perfectly prepared. She gathers the flowers that she needs, occasionally asking the man questions on how seriously he wanted to insult his stepfather. His answer is always the same: “As rude as possible.”

When she was finished gathering all the flowers she wanted, she gestures for the man to follow her to the counter where she could ring him up. She wraps up the flowers, putting them in a vase and covering them with protective wrapping. She knows the hospital is on the other side of town and she doesn’t want for her bouquet to get ruined. 

“What flowers are these?” The man asks, running his hand through his dark hair. Annabeth keeps thinking about how handsome he is and tries to stop. 

“I’m glad you asked,” she smiles. “Okay, this flower here, that’s foxglove. The meaning of foxglove is insincerity. And then do you see this one? They’re geraniums, and they mean stupidity. The yellow ones here, they’re carnations and mean ‘you have disappointed me.’ This one, here, is meadowsweet and it stands for uselessness. The last one is an orange lily, and it just means hatred.”

The man’s mouth is hitting his chin. He blinks a few times. When he does begin to smile, his eyes are sparkling with mischief and his hands are clenching and unclenching into fists, but not in a negative way. “Oh, wow, this is _perfect_.”

Annabeth smiles at him, flattered. While some people might appreciate the message her bouquets can bring, there has never been this much appreciation from one person, especially about a hate bouquet. While the arrangement was beautiful, it was full of spite. 

The man pulls out a wrinkled twenty dollar bill from his pocket and puts it on the counter. “Does this cover it?”

“Yeah, actually, everything is only fifteen,” Annabeth answers, reaching for the cash register for change.

“No, please, keep it,” he says, taking the arrangement. “I can’t thank you enough for this.”

Annabeth smiles again, taking the bill and putting it into the register to deposit the bill. She types up the receipt and hands it to him. 

“Thank you, uh…” He is searching for her name. She realizes she never gave it to him.

“Oh, I’m Annabeth,” she replies, reaching out a hand to shake.

“Cool, I’m Percy,” he says, introducing himself. His handshake is firm and his hand is warm. And his hand is gone too soon from Annabeth’s.

“I hope he likes the arrangement,” she says out of habit when Percy turns to leave. “Or, I mean, doesn’t.”

“I will let you know, Annabeth!” Percy calls, looking over his shoulder one last time before leaving the flower shop. 

Annabeth watches him go, and leans her head on her hand. She has never had a customer like him. She knows that she wishes he truly would come back to tell her all about it. In her mind’s eye, she could see him coming back and sitting on the counter while talking animatedly about how his stepfather didn’t understand the bouquet and how funny it all was.

She sighs wistfully, and goes back to work. She continues straightening up the shop, trimming a flower or two here, rearranging some bouquets there. A few more customers come in and get flowers for their loved ones, and Annabeth helps them cheerfully. However, deep down, she wishes they were as entertaining as her first guest had been this morning.

Before she knows it, it is time to close up the shop. She does so slowly, envisioning Percy running down the street, trying to catch her before she went home. However, he doesn’t, and she closes up, locks the door, and makes it home safely. 

The next morning, Annabeth opens the shop. She organizes the freshest flowers and puts the older flowers in the front so that they could be sold before they went bad. As she does so, her thoughts linger to the man who asked for the worst bouquet someone could ever receive. 

She laughs to herself quietly, thinking about his foul mouth. Annabeth wonders if his stepfather understood the flowers, but he probably didn’t. One of the reasons that Annabeth was so successful in a flower shop was her ability to know every flower’s meaning. None of the other florists in the city seemed to either know the meanings or not care. 

The bell above the door tinkles and Annabeth looks up to see who her next customer is. A grin spreads across her face when she sees who it is. 

“Hi, Percy,” she greets, putting down the flowers in her hands and wiping her hands on her pants as she stood up. “How did your stepfather like the flowers?”

“Oh, he didn’t get it, but I think my mom did,” Percy replies, chuckling a bit. “She was kind of mad but she definitely thought it was funny.”

Annabeth laughs along and awkwardly rocked back on her heels. She didn’t want to go back to work just yet, because that might seem rude to Percy. He seems to realize this and clears his throat.

“I actually have another request,” he says, coming towards the front of the store. He pulls a folded piece of paper from his pocket and begins reading off it. “I need some fern, holly, a calla lily or two, lily-of-the-valley, morning glories, and a sunflower!” 

Annabeth’s smile grows with every flower he mentions. She begins moving around the store, finding what he asked for without any trouble. But then she started to bite her lip. What if he didn’t know what these flowers meant? Perhaps he just saw pictures of them online and thought they would be pretty. Oh, gods, what if he was planning on giving it to someone else?

“Do you know what these flowers mean?” Annabeth asks conversationally. 

“Yeah, I made sure to look them up on a few different websites to make sure they all meant what I thought they did,” Percy says, seeming proud of himself. “The fern means sincerity, right?”

Annabeth nods. 

“And the holly is for hope, that one is easy, and the calla lily means beauty,” he continues, pointing out each flower in turn in Annabeth’s hands. “The lily-of-the-valley means sweetness, while the morning glory is for affection!

_Wow_ , Annabeth thinks. _He really got every single one right._

“The sunflower means adoration,” Percy says after a moment. He’s suddenly much more shy than he was when he had started. “Do you like them?”

“Yeah, they’re a very sweet bouquet,” Annabeth says, putting the arrangement into a vase. “Whoever is going to get them is super lucky that you’re so thoughtful.”

“Yeah, they are,” Percy replies, his lips twitching into a smile. “Or, well, she is.”

Internally, Annabeth sighs. Of course he would get the flowers for someone else. She was dumb for getting her hopes up. She had let her inner romantic take over, and now she was regretting it.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, I thought you would get it,” Percy says, bringing her out of her thoughts. “Oh, good, I—wow this could have been so mean, they’re for you!”

With a small noise of surprise, Annabeth looks at the bouquet again. Her grin returns, wider than before, and she looks to Percy with adoration in her eyes. He was so sweet to have done this!

“Percy, I love this!” She says, moving around the flowers so that the arrangement looked even better. 

“So you’ll go on a date with me?” His eyes are sparkling again, the most beautiful shade of green. 

“Yes,” she says, not even having to think twice about it. 

Epilogue 

He picked out the flowers in her wedding bouquet. He didn’t tell her which ones he wanted to include, so when she saw her bouquet for the first time, she cried. 

He had included red roses (I love you), tulips (declaration of love), and yarrow (everlasting love).

**Author's Note:**

> Annabeth and Percy are just my favorite people ever. I hope you liked this one, thank you so much for reading! :)


End file.
